Batman The Animated Newsletter #59

Batman: The Animated NewsletterWeeks of March 6 – March 11/12, 2000Volume 3,Rated: PG for some “low-key coarse language and occasional griping”

THIS ISSUE’S SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: “SO WHEN WERE THOSE ANIMATED BAT-VIDEO GAMES SUPPOSED TO BE OUT THIS YEAR, ANYWAY?”______________________MAKE US LOOK LIKE FOOLS AND SEE YOUR NAME IN PRINT!

Yep, you heard right! Ever since the issue #1, my hasty editing procedures have always left not just a few, but sometimes a whole horde of simple errors, grammatical problems, untrue facts, and whatnot. Just no typos – you’ve gotta be more creative than that! Here’s where YOU come in. If you can find any mistakes in this issue (we’re not purposely making mistakes – any mistakes you find will be ones we were too blind to see), we’ll print your name in the following issue in a special column. Sound fun?

BRIAN DAVIS-who pointed out that OVER THE EDGE has yet to premiere in the UK, but did premiere in Ireland – before it did in Canada and the US, actually.______________________EAGERLY ANTICIPATING…New episodes are on the horizon! Here’s what we can expect in the near future…

‘ARMORY’Batman Beyond #31Air date: March 11, 2000When the father of one of Terry’s friends is laid off from his lucrative research and development job, he develops a super-powered suit in his backyard workshop and turns to a life of crime.

For synopses of all other upcoming second season BATMAN BEYOND episodes, check out of BTAN at this address:

NOTE:If our schedule is not updated, then go to the following URL. It will ALWAYS contain the most up-to-date schedule possible.//www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Taping/2928/airdate.htm

THIS WEEK:Mon 03-06-00: B-BEYOND #13 Ascension

Tue 03-07-00: Superman #21 Mxyzpixilated

Wed 03-08-00: Batman #93 Growing Pains

Thu 03-09-00: Superman #43 The New Kids in Town

Fri 03-10-00: B-BEYOND #18 Bloodsport

Sat 03-11-00: Batman #101 Animal ActB-BEYOND #31 Armory ———> NEW!!!

All episodes #86 and onward of BATMAN are considered THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES while the original 85 are considered BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (BTAS) episodes._______________________CANADIAN EPISODE SCHEDULE(BATMAN, SUPERMAN, and BEYOND on YTV)(courtesy of our friends at YTV)

-To find the episode guide and airing schedule of BATMAN and BATMAN BEYOND on YTV then please go to //www.ytv.com and click on the YTV GUIDE icon at the bottom of the screen. To check out the schedule then click on BATMAN or BATMAN BEYOND in the time grid and it will have the schedule for the current week.

BTAS will air at Noon on weekdays (in all time zones), and BATMAN BEYOND will air at 2:30pm on Saturday and Sunday. YTV has the rights to show all 109 BTAS episodes. They also have the rights to air the first 26 episodes of BATMAN BEYOND (all of season 1 and the first half of season 2).

YTV will be making some schedule alterations very soon. Thanx to WF’s official newsman Mr. Eye, we were able to get a hold of some of them! And here they are…World’s Finest: The Batman/Superman Movie will air March 10th at 6:30pm (ET). This will be the first Superman episodes that YTV airs, and could lead to more…Batman Beyond will join The Zone beginning Monday, March 13th at 3:30pm (ET). It’s unknown how long this will last and if this will include new BB episodes.

THIS WEEK:Mon 03-06-00: BTAS #23 Vendetta

Tue 03-07-00: BTAS #19 Prophecy of Doom

Wed 03-08-00: BTAS #07 The Forgotten

Thu 03-09-00: BTAS #27 Mad as a Hatter

Fri 03-10-00: BTAS #31 The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy

Sat 03-11-00: BEYOND #05 The Winning Edge

Sun 03-12-00: BEYOND #09 Spellbound

NOTE: YTV will air BATMAN & MR. FREEZE: SUB-ZERO at 6:30 pm on Friday, March 10th, as a part of their March Break celebration._______________________CARTOON NETWORK WB ANIMATION SCHEDULE:(courtesy of Brian Cruz)

THE CARTOON NETWORK was able to get the exclusive rights to 52 episodes of the classic BTAS, as well as both animated movies. BTAS airs Monday-Friday at 6pm (ET) and then repeated again at midnight. If our schedule listings is not complete or up to date then please go to either of these sites for the schedule:

To see the 52 episodes that the CARTOON NETWORK does show, go to this link:

//www.toonzone.net/brian/eplists/batman-cn.html

NOTE: The schedules at Brian Cruz’ site are currently unavailable; if anyone knows of any other place where people can get listings for BTAS on the Cartoon Network, please e-mail us!_______________________EPISODE REVIEW: (SPOILERS!)(by Tim “TWO-FACE” Leighton)

All of Tim “TWO-FACE” Leighton’s reviews of the new-style BTAS episodes and BATMAN BEYOND can be found via these links, which link to “Two-Face’s Tower of Tranquility and Terror”:

The creative “team” for this column alternates between Zanna and Justin Chen, two loyal subscribers and great friends of ours here. Any other reviews printed here are written by editor Tim “TWO-FACE” Leighton. Enjoy!

THE LAST RESORTWritten by Stan BerkowitzDirected by Curt GedaAnimation by Dong Yang, KokoOriginal Air Date: March 4, 2000Rating: *** of 5

DESCRIPTION: Batman investigates a special boarding school for troubled youths, and finds that the place is more like a prison than an educational facility.HIGHS: Some interesting ideas, Terry does something without the suit LOWS: Yet another “teen angst” episode, shaky characterizations.OVERALL: A teen problem episode with a few redeeming plot items.

It seems like forever since we last saw a new Batman Beyond episode, so I was hoping for something good with “The Last Resort”. It had one of the best writers of Season 2 (Stan Berkowitz of “Lost Soul” and “Babel”) behind it, so naturally I was expecting something very enjoyable. As it turns out though, this is a (groan) “teen issues” episode…season two’s been full of them. However, there are a few interesting twists that raise this ep above mediocrity.

A wild car chase through the skyways of Gotham is an action of Sean, a troubled teen from Hamilton Hill High School. This is just another statistic in the trend of kids causing trouble in the future, and new parental liability laws are really putting pressure on families to do something about this problem. What better to do than…send them off to someone else? In this case, the “someone else” is a new “tough love ranch” just outside town that promises counseling to get kids back on track. The regular school is becoming a virtual ghost town, and when even Chelsea Cunningham gets sent away, the few remaining students begin to question this place. Batman investigates, only to find out that the place is being run more like a prison camp than a youth center. Sleep deprivation, attacks on the kids’ self esteem, and vicious guards are all meant to keep the kids in line. For those who don’t go with the program, there’s ISO, complete sensory blockout to turn kids into vegetebles.

Batman himself can’t go to the cops, so he goes in as Terry McGinnis to obtain evidence of the harsh practices there. Unfortunately he runs into some trouble with Sean over a past incident, and ends up with his cover blown and imprisoned within the facility. ISO is in store for him until he convinces his childhood foe to cooperate with him against the ranch staff. Together they manage to bring down the authority of the man in charge and save the kids.

The premise itself wouldn’t have been bad if we didn’t have so many episodes dealing with teen problems already. Terry’s supposed to be getting more like Bruce and dealing with larger scale things, not playing hall monitor. It just gets old after a while no matter how it’s modified, and that puts a definite damper on everything. Secondly, the characters aren’t that great this time around. Sean’s near-lunacy is well done, as well as Chelsea’s desperation, but the boss of the ranch, a psychologist, isn’t explored much. So he wants to break kids’ spirit…is that it? Why are his views like that? We don’t know. Plus I felt he got off too lightly at the end, Sean almost kills him but the toned-down policy of these Season 2 eps requires Batman to save the doctor. And then Principal Nakamura at the high school seems like a big jerk, he gets an opinion from Chelsea and has her shipped off.

What this ep does do is depict the aspects of the captive life well. There are huge telescreens broadcasting images and degrading propaganda to the kids, like something out of 1984 (Good book, read it if you can). The black lined eyes of the deprived kids show the suffering caused by lack of sleep. Unfortunately we never actually see someone experience the dreaded ISO…it would have been an interesting experience to depict. In this episode Terry once again relies on his own wit to get himself out of a tough situation, proving he’s not just a suit but the man inside as well.

Overall, this is not a “must-see” event, this ep did some things well and others not so well. It’s just a matter of opinion whether the good outweighs the bad; to me it balances out, so three stars is my final decision.

-Justin Chen, aka The Overseert_overseer@yahoo.com

EDITORIAL(by Kelly Tindall)cointoss@hotmail.com

A SIGH IS JUST A SIGH

Continuing last week’s discussion of the past and how it fit in 1992’s Batman present, I think it would be an utter crime to forget the classic episode, “Beware the Grey Ghost”.

It was a terrific episode in every way, from taking a crusty old superhero (played by Adam West, f’goodness sakes!) from the dusty black-and-white era and pairing him with his sleek, dangerous pseudo-protege. It was a love letter from Timm et al to those men and women who crafted that which entertained Timm and company during THEIR childhoods.

Brilliant.

I’m especially fond of the poster advertising the Grey Ghost television show. Grey Ghost himself appears much like 1930’s radio hero The Shadow, who know what evil lurks in the hearts of men. “Out from the shadows comes…the Greyyyyy Ghost!” Cut to music. Beautiful. Not to mention the lettering used in the poster was from the title of comic superman Doc Savage.

The neatest little touch was the casting. Besides the savagely fabulous high-watermark casting of Adam West, Bruce Timm was cast as the Mad Bomber, an idiot with a thing for toys. He was creepy in the way that real people are creepy…totally innocuous, but serious as a heart attack about their little predilictions. Not your standard villain, to be sure.

I think this level of love and commitment towards the medium is what separated the original Batman The Animated Series from its three spinoffs. The world that the animators watched and loved and grew up in was right there on display. Instead of a guy in a trench coat, there was a man dressed up as a bat. What can be more right than that?____________________BATMAN: THE ANIMATED TRIVIA(by Tim “TWO-FACE” Leighton)

This is one of my favourite sections, where I get to boggle the minds of all our readers! *EVIL LAUGH* This trivia is all animated-related in some form, and can deal with ANY aspect of the show or comics based on the show. Remember, answer the questions WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE ANIMATED CONTINUITY. Now have fun – let’s see how well you do! Answers are provided below.

Entitled: “ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS YOU NEVER ASKED”

281. Gotham City has a police commissioner. This certain commissioner has a daughter. This daughter once invisioned herself being killed. Who was the first hostage of this said “almost-killer”?

A: Dr. LongB: Ferris BoyleC: Charlie CollinsD: Rupert ThorneE: Batman

282. Who was in Batman’s first fear-gas induced hallucination by the Scarecrow? Who provided this individual’s voice? What other major character does this man or woman provide a voice for? What was the last word spoken in the third episode (in order of air date) in which this character appeared?

A: MineB: GraceC: MeatloafD: CandiceE: Now

283. How many issues will the “Harley & Ivy” miniseries run for?

A: 2B: 3C: 4D: 5E: What? I thought it was canned!

284. One villain once had Batman locked up in a guillotine. Name the first episode (in order of air date) in which this same villain appeared.

285. What is the name of Egghead’s first episode in the animated universe?

A: THE OGG GROWS IN GOTHAMB: EASTER WITH EGGHEADC: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHTD: WHICH CAME FIRST…?E: He has yet to be introduced into the animated continuity. Dang it – he rocks.

SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION: Has the word “hell” ever appeared in an animated Batman story, on TV or in the comics, said OR read? (Note: Bruce Timm’s “Two of a Kind” story is excluded from this question – just to make it tougher.)

Answer: _________________________________AND THESE ARE OUR FINAL ANSWERS (to the trivia)

Answer to #281: AAnswer to #282: BAnswer to #283: BAnswer to #284: DAnswer to #285: E

Here is a section that just points out various little facts and bloopers that we have noticed while watching BTAS and STAS countless times. If you have anything to contribute, feel free to do so! Enjoy!

CONTRIBUTED BY STAFF:Alas, we here at the newsletter were unable to spot any new little facts OR bloopers over the past week. For that, we apologize. Really.

CONTRIBUTED BY OTHERS:Na da. Rien. Je m’excuse, mes amis._____________________MERCHANDISING: WHERE THE REAL BAT-CASH IS MADE(by anyone who cares to contribute)

It seems like Peterson is finally getting a grasp on this title. When he started nine issues ago, he had a few stand-out issues, but they alternated with a number of very poor ones. Recently these said poor ones have been upgraded to “good”, and occasional great issue still remains. He’s not the same as Templeton, but he’s getting closer and closer. Either way, the title is still a great read.

I’m growing accustomed to Peterson’s splash on page one – it’s a great way to introduce the story. The story itself is very simple, but a good one. Robin and Nightwing are captured by an unknown individual while attempting to save a fellow Gothamite; even Killer Croc gets trapped.

When Batman and Batgirl investigate, the story finally begins to take shape. Catwoman – a total surprise to me – shows up and gives us all the details. Her last meeting with Batman, way back in Issue #4 (great issue, too – go pick it up) resulted in a big change in her relationship with him; she had become a lot darker, more violent, and even more distant from the object of her affections. Here, she tries to make ammends – by trapping Batman so he and she can have their long-overdue conversation. Of course, Catwoman doesn’t get her wish, and of course, she gets away; Batgirl’s conversation with Batman on the final page is quite enlightening, though. Does Batman still have SOME feelings for her, deep down inside?

And that’s not all! There are many other little things to notice in here. Levins and Beatty are a terrific team, as always…the shading used when Robin and Nightwing are trapped is terrific, the colours used during the bridge sequence were terrific, and Batman and Catwoman’s chase through Gotham was superb. Sure, the dialogue lacked during that sequence, making this issue a rather quick read, but I still really enjoyed it.

It’s nice to see Dick dating other people now – it’d be interesting to see an issue dedicated to this, and how Barbara would react. I see that Batgirl’s “scar” under her right eye (that I pointed out in my review of ) is still present, too. I DID notice, however, that Catwoman’s ghostly complexion was absent – she’s gone back to having a nice peachy skin-tone now. But why the change? I also wish that Killer Croc got to do a bit more than just be brainless, tough, and mean – but hey, I’m not complaining. His inclusion was kinda fun.

Overall, a great issue. I can’t wait until the double-sized issue next month!

I’m going to have to say that the Batman Beyond Comic series is proving interesting in that all the odd issues are good, while the even ones are mediocre. I’d say that this issue seems to be more of a joke, and lacks common sense in many places, but is an interesting read nonetheless.

The comic and the title is a tribute to the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” This would explain the randomness of Terry and his friends being on an island, and the traps. The author of the short story escapes me, but in it a man gets lost on an island with one of a big game hunter who has lost all interest in hunting animals. Instead the hunter hunts humans who accidentally stumble on his island. The hunter invites the man to hunt with him, but he refuses. To make a long story short, the man avoids the hunter’s traps, and ends up beating the hunter at his own game. which is essentially what happens in this issue.

The opening with the bear is ridiculous and is obviously just thrown in for the sake of a parallel with the short story. The fact that Stalker invites Batman to hunt with him, but then turns on him later is also obviously from the story. Nonetheless both Batman and the Stalker seem completely out of character. It’s obvious that Batman is still the greater challenge, so why should he be hunting spliced animals? Why does Batman even bother with Stalker’s games? He could easily rescue his friends as Batman. He doesn’t even need to save the animals’ lives, because Stalker mentions that they die soon after.

The spliced animals are pretty darn cool, and probably the only highlight of the book. The ending is predictable and expected. Overall the comic is a big disappointment and probably isn’t worth picking up unless you’ve read the short story.

-Tim Wan_______________COMIC SCHEDULES & COVERING THE BASICS

This section gives a little bit more in-depth look into each monthly issue of BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES, BATMAN BEYOND, and SUPERMAN ADVENTURES. Below each comic listing is a link to the cover of that comic. TALK ABOUT SERVICE!The price for any of these issues, unless otherwise posted, is $1.99 in the US and…grrrrr…a whopping $3.25 in Canada. (Both our editors and many subscribers are Canadian, hence the “grrr”.)If we are unsure of the exact date of when an issue is being released, just check out “DIRECT CURRENTS” at //www.dccomics.com for details.

BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #24March 1stSynopsis: Members of the Bat-team are being kidnapped one-by-one. But who is behind it all?Cover: //www.geocities.com/bbeyond/bga24.jpg

FOLLOWING MONTH:Synopsis: A team-up between Batman and the Flash.Cover: //comicscontinuum.com/stories/0001/25/bmgothadvent25.jpg

BATMAN BEYOND #7 (ongoing)March 22ndSynopsis: The return of another popular BEYOND villain (we’re not telling WHO) makes Terry’slife a living hell.Cover: //www.geocities.com/bbeyond/bbc7.jpg

SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #43March 8thSynopsis: A street thug finds a Mother Box in a story written by Jordan B. Gorfinkel (BATMAN: NO MAN’s LAND #0) with art by newcomer Min S. Ku and Comics Buyer’s Guide-elected “favorite inker of the century” Terry Austin.Cover: Unavailable

ALL-ENCOMPASSING/OTHER-Terry Beatty has been and will be selling Gotham Adventures and Batman Beyond original art on eBay. His Seller ID is: beatty@machlink.com Do yourself a favor and check out some great art!-Craig Rousseau has been and will be selling Gotham Adventures and Batman Beyond original art on eBay. His Seller ID is: cerousseau@aol.com Feel free to check it out! You don’t wanna miss it!-In the UK, BATMAN BEYOND has been renamed BATMAN OF THE FUTURE, and airs Sundays at 9:25 am on CITV. In Ireland Batman Beyond airs Fridays at 5pm on RTE2.-Wanna sign a petition to get the WB to hire Jeph Loeb as the screenwriter for BATMAN 5? Go to this site to have your say://homepages.go.com/~fabio2_batcave/campaign.html-The ONSTAR commercials featuring Batman are now on the air, and the website has had an overhaul as well. Check it out! The commercials will be available for download shortly.//www.onstar.com-YTV will be making some schedule alterations very soon. Thanx to WF’s official newsman Mr. Eye, we were able to get a hold of some of them! And here they are…World’s Finest: The Batman/Superman Movie will air March 10th at 6:30pm (ET). This will be the first Superman episodes that YTV airs, and could lead to more…Batman Beyond will join The Zone beginning Monday, March 13th at 3:30pm (ET). It’s unknown how long this will last and if this will include new BB episodes.

ANIMATED SERIES (BTAS, STAS, BEYOND)-A new series named “ZETA” may spin-off out of BATMAN BEYOND; an episode titled “Zeta” is coming up later on this season.-YTV will be airing BATMAN & MR. FREEZE: SUB-ZERO on Friday, March 10, 2000, at 6:30 pm.

ANIMATED COMICS-BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #26, being released on May 3, will play out as follows: Everyone from the CIA and the FBI to the local Gotham mobs (Russian, Italian, Jamaican, Chinese) are in search of Kristov…and they’re willing to kill to get it. Batman doesn’t know what Kristov is, but he’s not going to let anyone kill – or die – for it. Here is the cover://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0002/22/BatmanGothAdventCvr26.jpg-BATMAN BEYOND #9 will feature Batman’s first comic-book battle against Curare. Here is the cover://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0002/22/BatmanBeyondCvr9.jpg-The first six issues of BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES will be collected in tradepaperback form, being released on May 17. These six issues feature great stories by Ty Templeton and great art by Rick Burchett and Terry Beatty; characters in the spotlight are Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Joker, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, the Riddler, Clayface, Deadman, and more. It will cost $9.95, and the cover will be the same as the cover of GOTHAM ADVENTURES #1.

OTHER COMICS-Larry Hama will be leaving BATMAN after 0. A new writer has yet to be appointed.-DETECTIVE COMICS #751-753 will focus on Gotham City’s quest to take Robinson Park back from Poison Ivy, who has still controlled that area since the end of NML.-The first ever 80 PAGE GIANTS for ROBIN and NIGHTWING will be released in the near future; Chuck Dixon is attached as the writer for both of them.-The ongoing HARLEY QUINN series will commence in September.-DARK VICTORY #8 will feature the fateful night at the circus where Bruce and Dick meet for the first time. This issue also features the Joker trying to blow up Gotham City.-BATMAN: 80 PAGE GIANT #3, written by Chuck Dixon, will be one triple-length story featuring Batman and Robin vs. Calendar Man.-Howard Porter has signed a two year exclusive contract with DC. Porter will soon be the artist for ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, taking over this fall.-Mike Deodato Jr. (NO MAN’S LAND) will be providing the art for BATGIRL ANNUAL 2000. The Annual has no tentative shipping date, but expect it in the summer.-Joker and Harley appear in ACTION COMICS #765 this month. Here’s a link to the cover://www.dccomics.com/directcurrents/comics/mar29/covers/down/dact765.jpg

MOVIES-BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER will now be released on October 31, 2000.-Two more Batman Beyond videos are going to be released on May 16th, 2000: volumes #4 and 5. One is entitled “Spellbound”, and the fifth is entitled “Crush”. The exact episodes shown on each tape haven’t been released as of yet. The cover of SPELLBOUND can be found here://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/bbvid.jpg-For a picture of what the Joker will look like in the future, go to this pic://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/bbjoker.jpg-Check out the following URL for a rather amusing Budweiser commercial featuring clips from that wonderful show, “Superfriends”. You must have Quicktime 3 or higher to view it.//63.249.196.103/files/wassup.mov

LIVE ACTION TV-???

TOYS, BOOKS, AND OTHER MERCHANDISE-COLUMBIA HOUSE is releasing 10 more videos of BTAS episodes, bringing the total of tapes released to 20 (80 episodes overall). Here is what’s coming soon:

SPECIAL NOTEFor more BATMAN, SUPERMAN, AND BEYOND news throughout the week, check out the WORLD’S FINEST NEWS PAGE at://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/news.html___________________________FEATURED BAT-SITE FOR THIS ISSUE(feel free to submit your own for our consideration)

No sites were submitted for consideration for this particular issue. Agh.___________________________ANIMATED BATMAN/SUPERMAN SITES:

* – indicates a shameless plug for a site a certain double-faced editor created with his bare hands – in other words, a cheap advertising technique.

If you have any questions, problems, links do not work, or anything else, then please e-mail this address with your problems and we’ll try to fix them as soon as possible. Also if you’d like to send any fan-mail then please send it to this address:

juno@direct.ca

As for submissions, feel free to submit an article or opinion on anything pertaining to BTAS. Keep in mind that as the editors, we have the right to edit your submissions if we deem it necessary. Such instances would include problems with length, grammar, and language. If we do feel we must edit something, however, we will do our utmost to ensure that the opinion and the basic message of the submission does not change, as that is the most important part of any artcile, and everyone is entitled to it. And if you do submit something, please don’t just submit a basic review of an episode or a comic or something (because we have people writing for those purposes already) – write about an issue you’d like to discuss.___________________________BATMAN: THE ANIMATED ARCHIVES

The very kind people at TOONZONE were nice enough to give us our own little section of their huge and diverse website. The archive contains past newsletters and is semi-regularly updated with the latest one. To check it out go here:

For those of you who are seeing this at the WBC HOMEPAGE BTAN ARCHIVES section and want to subscribe, just follow these simple instructions:

To subscribe email juno@direct.ca, put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line, and put the e-mail address you’d like the newsletter to be sent to in the body of the message.

For more information about the newsletter just email juno@direct.ca Thank you for your time, and thanks for reading! Tell your friends!

-Tim TWO-FACE Leighton and Dick Grayson, editors___________________________TO ALL GOOD THINGS……there must be an end. We would like to thank the endless amount of contributors for contributing their editorials, columns, news, jokes, reviews and other articles. We hope you’ve all enjoyed it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it! Thank you for reading! See ya next time!